Most people would be planning to put their feet up and enjoy a day of celebration as they celebrated their 60th birthday.

Most people would be planning to put their feet up and enjoy a day of celebration as they celebrated their 60th birthday.

But one adventurous couple have tossed aside tradition and pledged to walk almost 200 miles from coast to coast in aid of charity.

Des and Allan Talbot will walk 193 miles, a total ascent and descent of 22, 825ft, from St Bee's in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire in aid of Macmillan nurses.

Rather than hold a party or accept presents for their birthdays, Mr and Mrs Talbot, of Harriet Martineau Way in Thetford, have asked generous family and friends to donate to their cause instead and have already raised more than �1,000 .

They will begin the walk on June 14, arriving 16 days later on Mr Talbot's 60th birthday on June 29.

He said: “The weather will be the main factor because we've been fair weather walkers for some time but I feel we've got to be up to walking whatever the morning brings us.

“If we have days with low cloud it could cause problems but we've got a Garmin [a navigation device] to pinpoint where we're going which will give us confidence. Doing it from west to east you're doing the hard part first.”

The couple, who expect to walk between eight and 17 miles per day, have two grown up children, Mark and Sasha, and two grandchildren, Maddison, five, and Caden, three. They are regular walkers in Norfolk, North Yorkshire and the Lake District.

To get in shape for their latest challenge Mr Talbot, a long-distance lorry driver with DHL, often cycles through Thetford, and Mrs Talbot, a retired headteacher of Queensway Junior School, follows a fitness programme in the gym.

Mrs Talbot, who turned 60 on January 11, said the pair chose Macmillan nurses as they had family members who had suffered with cancer.

To sponsor Mr and Mrs Talbot visit www.justgiving.com/desmonde-talbot.